Email marketing for a local business keeps you in front of your target audience of prospects or customers. Having an email list for a small business is a goldmine and a source of valuable leads and increased profits for your local business.
But I hear complaints from business owners of unsuccessful attempts at growing their email list. And when I review their online campaigns to grow their list I’m not surprised they get poor results. It takes much more effort than a standard “join my newsletter list” offer in the top right hand corner of your home page.
People today just won’t hand over their email address to get yet another free newsletter they don’t have time to read.
But offer a valuable and relevant free report in exchange for their email address and enough visitors will take you up on your offer because they feel it a fair exchange. And providing the report contains great and relevant information, and promotes you as an expert in a topic they’re interested in then people are more likely to “open” and read your newsletter and messages when they receive them.
Here are some tips to make this strategy work for you:
Make Sure Your Free Report Looks valuable:
It’s not enough your free report has great content because until they read it they don’t know it has. So make sure your reports has compelling and teaser title – it should be a title that promises valuable tips or answers to questions you know a prospect has about your service or product.
I always have a graphic designer create a professional looking image for my free reports. It may cost you $50 – $100 but the investment is well worth it. This little extra enhances the value of your free report.
Many marketers put a dollar value on a free report as they believe this increases the value in the eyes of the prospect.
If you decide this works for you just be realistic in the value you place on it. $99 for a 30-page report will probably be perceived as hype but then again 99c may convey information of low value.
Let your niche market determine the value you place on your report.
I offer a free report on How to Get Your Local Business Listed in Local Search on the Internet and a free Internet Marketing for Small Business Course to encourage people to subscribe to my list. I haven’t put a dollar value on them but they both took weeks to create and have a retail value of at least $40. But I digress…
Creating Your Free Report:
For many business owners the thought of creating a special report sends them into a spiral of denial as it involves time they don’t have. However, a special report of 5-10 pages can be as valuable as one of 60-pages if it answers questions on the minds of prospects for your service.
If you’ve articles already syndicated as part of your Article Marketing for your Local Business as explained in this post then you may have the materials for your report already written. Take these articles and edit them so they have a thread connecting them and you have your special report.
For example I wrote a bunch of articles about scenic drives in New England and syndicated them all over the Internet. Eventually, I took each one, elaborated on them by adding attraction information, and added a few more drives to produce a scenic drive eBook I offer as a premium to get visitors to subscribe to my vacations site email list.
Promoting Your Free Report:
Now you’ve a special report you can give away to your target audience to get them on your email list, you need to start promoting your free report.
You do this by creating a separate page at your web site which includes the offer and sign-up form – some marketers call this a landing page. Only ask for minimum submission details, such as first name and email address, as there is strong evidence to suggest the more information you require the less response you’ll get.
Now promote this page in as many different ways and where your target audience congregates.
Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
- Print the landing page URL on the back of your business card surrounded by a benefit statement.
- Instead of asking people to link to your home page from other local web sites get them to link to your report offer landing page.
- Include link to your report page in your bio and profile pages at social media sites.
- When you leave comments at blogs related to your niche include a link to your landing page in your signature where it’s allowed.
- When you syndicate an article include the URL to the report in your resource box.
- Promote your special report page from other pages at your web site and your blog if you have one. Do this on related pages and posts so it seems a natural fit to the reader. Do this on topic pages, FAQ section, glossary page, just about any information page you have at your site or blog.
Remember to include anchor text along with geo-modifier when linking to your special report rather than just the URL. Doing this will help you rank in the search engines for your free downloadable product.
And if you need help with increasing your email list and creating a special report then contact us about our Email Marketing Service for a Local Business here.
We’d love to get your feedback on this article and others at this site so please leave a comment in the box below.
Cliff Calderwood
New England Local Marketing
5 Goss Pond Road, Suite 200
Upton, Massachusetts 01568
cliff@nelocalmarketing.com
508 479 2840
